Love is a burning thing
by Kalisca
Summary: The fire alarm goes off at 3 AM, so of course you have to run almost naked outside to tease your gay neighbor. M!Hawke/Fenris, Pre-Slash, AU - Modern Setting


**I found an excellent prompt/idea on Tumblr, and I decided to give it a try during a sleepless night.**

**iggycat: "Someone needs to write a 'the fire alarm went off at 3 am and now the cute guy from the flat next door is standing next to me in his underwear' AU"**

**Love is a burning thing**

The alarm startled me awake, blazing through the corridor outside my apartment. I groaned. It was pitch black outside, which meant someone burnt or made explode something in the building in the middle of the night. That happened before. I got up groggily and moved through the mess of my two rooms to get out outside, not bothering to check out my appearance. My beard gave an eternal untidy ruggedness to my handsome features.

There was smoke indeed coming from Meredith's place, and I could hear her cursing from here. She bolted outside, a scrawny cat in her arms and her wide eyes staring right at me. She blamed me for about anything, and she was walking towards me to probably claim I did it when Cullen came out with an extinguisher. Good guy Cullen, always here to save the day. One time I was locked out of my apartment because I forgot my keys, and he wanted to lockpick my door for me. He went inside to put down the fire, Meredith hot on his heels.

My new neighbor's door opened as I was wondering whether or not I'd be able to sleep through the noise, and just as I decided that I'd take my chance, I turned around to greet the person. Wait a second, my eyes told my brain. This hot specimen had been living right by me for a month and I hadn't been aware of it?

"Hey," he greeted me, silver bangs swept aside and hiding one of his lovely green eyes. Frankly, I didn't know where to look; his gorgeous face, or the white tattoos running down the whole length of that beautiful, dark skin. Because he had to be in his underwear, he had to. The fire alarm goes off at 3 AM, so of course you have to run almost naked outside to tease your gay neighbor. Okay, so he might not have thought of this evil plan, but seriously, why does cute guys appear when you least expect them? Maybe I should have checked myself in the mirror before going out, but even to me, the idea seemed ridiculous.

"Hi," I greeted back, adverting my gaze and forcing myself to look anywhere but at that cute (almost naked) guy. He didn't even seem the slightest

"Do you know when the alarm will go off?" My neighbor asked, his voice sounding like melting chocolate right on my libido.

I must have looked like an idiot, gazing at him without responding, but I think he took this as me not hearing what he said, because he approached me and stood way too close to repeat his question. Finally, I shrugged with a forced chuckled which I was immediately horrified by.

"This happens sometimes. Last time it was an explosion downstairs, it went pretty loud and we had to get out."

Those dark eyebrows rose up. "An explosion?" Again, his voice rumbled through my core in a very pleasant way, if you know what I mean. Damn, he was even more gorgeous from up close.

"Yeah, Anders is a scientist. He's a bit clumsy with his experiments, but he's harmless." I couldn't help but grin at his visible discomfort. "It happened only once since I'm here, don't worry."

"You've been here for long?"

"A year. I think you're new here though, right? I'm Garrett." Wow, clever me strikes again. He simply nodded.

"Fenris. I recently moved in Kirkwall, I wasn't aware the neighborhood would be this… peculiar." The way he said it, with a small frown, was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. My grin widened, and I noticed his eyes flickering to my face before he continued to observe the end of the corridor, from where we could still hear Meredith's shouts.

"You'll get used to it," I replied.

This time he held my gaze with a glint that made my insides curl with desire – more desire if such a thing was possible.

"I can imagine myself enjoying this place, with the right reasons," Fenris smirked.

**The end**


End file.
